Wilson had one legendary season (albeit in the friendliest year hitters ever had) and a couple of other great ones. The rest of the time, he was fat, drunk and stupid. Doesn't deserve to bementioned among the all-time best.

Wilson had one legendary season (albeit in the friendliest year hitters ever had) and a couple of other great ones. The rest of the time, he was fat, drunk and stupid. Doesn't deserve to bementioned among the all-time best.

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Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through a season, son.

And as great as Hack's season was, you can pick from any one of six of Ruth's seasons that were as good or better:
1921: .378-59-171, 145 BB, 81 K, 17 SB
1923: .393-41-131, 170 BB, 93 K , 17 SB
1926: .372-47-150
1927: .356-60-164, 137 BB, 89 K
1928: .323-54-142
1931: .373-46-163

Wilson had one legendary season (albeit in the friendliest year hitters ever had) and a couple of other great ones. The rest of the time, he was fat, drunk and stupid. Doesn't deserve to bementioned among the all-time best.

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Like a lot of guys who played for the Giants and Cardinals in the 20s and 30s (Wilson started his career in NYC), Hack may have benefited from Frankie Frisch being chairman of the Veterans Committee for all those years. He basically got all his old buddies who were halfway worth a damn in the Hall of Fame (though Frisch died five years before Wilson was elected).

That and one MONSTER season which I'm not sure was regarded in its time as highly as we regard it now. Telling stat: Wilson finished EIGHTH in the NL MVP balloting that year.

Plus, Wilson died young, less than 15 years after his playing career ended. As others have said, a legendary drinker.

Which leads me to the best quote I ever read about Hack Wilson, maybe the best quote I ever read about anyone:

"He was built along the lines of a beer keg, and not wholly unfamiliar with its contents."

In 1962, Tommy Davis had 153 RBIs despite playing half his games in Dodger Stadium. Partly due to injury, he never approached that number again. One of the most amazing (and non-steroid aided, unlike Brady Anderson's) career blips in baseball history.